Health
When a parent must care for a parent: How to avoid caregiving burnout, according to experts
For members of the so-called “sandwich generation,” doing double-duty caregiving can take a toll.
Serving as a caregiver for a parent with dementia while also caring for kids and maintaining social and work relationships can come with physical, mental and emotional challenges, several experts expressed to Fox News Digital.
It can be especially difficult dealing with the role reversal, experts say.
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“The role of a parent is someone to look up to, respect and listen to,” Dr. Nancy Frye, PhD, a professor of psychology at Long Island University Post Campus in Brookville, New York, told Fox News Digital.
When a parent is in cognitive decline, questions arise about how to step out of traditional parent-child roles, she said, with “no clear norms or guidelines.”
For members of the so-called “sandwich generation,” doing double-duty caregiving can take a toll, experts say. (iStock)
“People have lived their lives looking up to their parents, turning to them for advice, and respecting their privacy and autonomy,” Frye continued.
“Now, they find themselves poking around in their parents’ affairs and wondering when to start making decisions for them.”
Stress of the ‘sandwich generation’
“Sandwich generation” caregivers — those who are tasked with taking care of multiple generations, such as parents and children, simultaneously — reported significantly higher levels of personal burnout compared to those who care solely for children, according to a 2023 study published in the International Journal of Aging & Human Development.
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One middle-aged caregiver from Long Island, New York, who asked to withhold her name, told Fox News Digital she can barely find time to take a shower when taking care of her mother with dementia.
“How can I find time to go for a walk or coffee with friends when I am afraid she will wander or fall?” she asked.
Those who are tasked with caring for members of multiple generations reported significantly higher levels of personal burnout compared to those who care solely for children. (iStock)
To avoid caregiver burnout when taking care of a parent who is dealing with an illness such as dementia, health experts said it is important to carve out time for yourself.
“Caring for a person with dementia can be very stressful,” Frye said. “In order to take care of somebody else, you need to take care of yourself. It is OK to take a break.”
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Dr. Marc L. Gordon, chief of neurology at Zucker Hillside Hospital Northwell Health on Long Island, New York, said caregivers should not hesitate to rely on others.
“It is important to find time for respite, and to ask for help rather than trying to do it all by yourself.”
He added, “Just like they tell you on an airplane, in case of an emergency, you should put on your own oxygen mask before attempting to assist others.”
“How can I find time to go for a walk or coffee with friends when I am afraid she will wander or fall?”
Darci Henry, a certified dementia practitioner and licensed nursing home administrator with Trualta — a Canadian company that provides online support and education for caregivers — said caregivers experience a range of emotions, all which are valid.
Henry emphasized to Fox News Digital the importance of delegating responsibilities to other family members and outsourcing tasks.
There are approximately 53 million caregivers in the U.S. as of 2020, a jump from 43.5 million in 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (iStock)
This may mean using community resources, such as meal prep, grocery delivery and laundry services.
“Reaching out and getting that extra layer of support is really important for your own preservation,” Henry said.
“Taking time for self-care is not selfish. It’s necessary.”
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Even for those who cannot leave the house, Henry suggested taking “micro moments.”
“It can be something as small as taking a few deep breaths, doing some stretching, standing outside on your porch or just enjoying a cup of coffee,” she said.
When it comes to speaking with children about their grandparent’s condition, an expert said knowledge is power. (iStock)
It is also important to carve out time for family relationships and daily check-ins with spouses or partners, according to Henry.
That could include going for a walk after dinner, having regular family meetings and discussing the division of responsibilities.
Navigating difficult discussions
“If there are underlying issues in the family, you’re definitely going to see them come up once the caregiving role starts,” Henry said.
People should seek professional help if the strain of caregiving is affecting the relationship, she advised.
“Many families have someone from the outside come in and mediate the meetings.”
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Having an outside perspective can help “provide a different lens” for the conversation and make sure everyone is heard, Henry noted.
While communicating, she said it’s key to be respectful and understand limitations and expectations.
“Try to take things as they come, moment by moment,” said one expert. “Focus on a parent having a good or a bad hour or day, as opposed to the parent improving or declining quickly.” (iStock)
When it comes to speaking with children about their grandparent’s condition, Henry said knowledge is power.
“The more you can educate the teenager or young adult about what is happening, the more empathy they may have about the situation.”
“If there are underlying issues in the family, you’re definitely going to see them come up once the caregiving role starts.”
To help deal with the mood swings often associated with dementia, Henry suggested adhering to a stable routine as much as possible and developing strategies to identify and prevent triggers for certain behaviors.
“Educating yourself on what is happening in that person’s brain is really important, because that will help you understand that they are not giving you a hard time, they’re having a hard time,” Henry said.
‘One day at a time’
It’s best to embrace a “one-day-at a time” mindset, Frye suggested.
“It’s tempting to take a parent’s state and behavior — whether it’s good or bad — as an indication of what’s to come,” she said.
To help deal with the mood swings that are often associated with dementia, an expert suggested adhering to a stable routine as much as possible and developing strategies to identify and prevent triggers. (iStock)
“Try to take things as they come, moment by moment. Focus on a parent having a good or a bad hour or day, as opposed to the parent improving or declining quickly,” Frye suggested.
Continuing to give a parent as much say and autonomy as possible can be helpful, she added — as long as it’s safe.
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“Decades ago, Ellen Langer did a study in which people in a nursing home were given a plant and told either that they needed to care for it, or that the staff would care for it,” Frye said.
“Those who were tasked with caring for their own plants lived longer.”
There are approximately 53 million caregivers in the U.S. as of 2020.
That’s a jump from 43.5 million in 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Colorectal cancer, once considered a disease of older age, is becoming a crisis for younger adults. New research shows one group getting hit the hardest – those without a college degree.
A recent study from the American Cancer Society analyzed data from over 101,000 adults aged 25 to 49 who died from colorectal cancer between 1994 and 2023.
While death rates remained stable for college graduates, they climbed significantly for those without a bachelor’s degree, the findings showed.
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For young adults with a high school education or less, the mortality rate rose from 4.0 to 5.2 per 100,000 people, while the rate for those with at least a bachelor’s degree stayed flat, at approximately 2.7 per 100,000.
This does not mean that a degree offers some kind of biological protection, researchers cautioned.
Colorectal cancer, once considered a disease of older age, is becoming a crisis for younger adults. (iStock)
The difference is likely driven by the conditions in which people live and work, which often correlate with education levels, the researchers noted.
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The study suggests that the higher death rates are likely driven by differences in the prevalence of risk factors, including obesity, physical inactivity, smoking and diet, which are “known to be elevated among children and young adults with lower [socioeconomic status].”
Because the study relied on death certificates, researchers couldn’t say exactly why college graduates had better outcomes.
Because the researchers didn’t have the patients’ actual medical records, they couldn’t see things like frequency of screenings or treatment options, which would impact survival outcomes. (iStock)
Certificates typically list the cause of death, age, race and education level, but they do not include a person’s full medical history.
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Because the researchers didn’t have the patients’ actual medical records, they couldn’t see things like frequency of screenings or treatment options, which would impact survival outcomes.
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Colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death for men under 50 and the second leading cause for women in the same age group, according to recent statistics.
While colorectal cancer death rates remained stable for college graduates, they climbed significantly for those without a bachelor’s degree, the findings showed. (iStock)
Because the disease is highly treatable when caught early, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) lowered the recommended screening age from 50 to 45 in 2021.
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Common signs and symptoms of colorectal cancer can include a change in bowel habits, such as diarrhea, constipation or narrowing of the stool, that lasts for more than a few days, according to the American Cancer Society.
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Other signs that warrant seeing a doctor include blood in the stool or a persistent feeling of needing to go to the bathroom but being unable to go.
The research was published in JAMA Oncology.
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A young woman who started vaping at the age of 15 has been given just 18 months to live — after being diagnosed with lung cancer in her early 20s.
Kayley Boda, 22, of Manchester, in the United Kingdom, was engaging in heavy vaping on a regular basis when she started coughing up a brown substance with “grainy bits” in it in January 2025, news agency SWNS reported.
The retail assistant said doctors turned her away eight times, telling her she had a chest infection — until she began coughing up blood.
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After seven biopsies, Boda was diagnosed with lung cancer. She underwent surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy — and in February 2026, got the all-clear, the same source reported.
Two months later, though, doctors said the cancer had come back in the pleural lining. Now she’s been given 18 months to live.
Kayley Boda, 22, is shown in the hospital. She started coughing up a brown substance with “grainy bits” in January 2025, she said. She had been vaping since the age of 15. (SWNS)
The young woman has now issued a warning to others to be aware of the dangers of vaping.
Boda said she smoked a bit as a young teenager. She took up vaping after that.
Then, “a few months after I switched from reusable vapes to disposable ones, I started coughing up brown, grainy mucus,” as SWNS reported.
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“Doctors turned me away eight times with a chest infection. … Then I started coughing up blood, so they did an X-ray and found a shadow on my lung,” she added.
“They told me they were 99% sure, [since I was] so young, that it wasn’t cancer, so not to worry about it. When I got the results back, and they told me it was lung cancer, it felt so surreal.”
Boda said she was “very naive” before her diagnosis and thought that “something like this would never happen to me.”
She said that she had surgery to remove half of her right lung.
“After the surgery, I started chemo and I had a terrible reaction to it. I couldn’t lift my head up. I was throwing up blood. I was urinating blood. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep.”
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She said that when she got the “all clear [in Feb. 2026], it felt amazing, but just two months later I was told the cancer had come back, and I have 18 months to live.”
She added, “I’m 22. This isn’t meant to happen to somebody my age.”
“Stay off the vapes because they will catch up with you.”
She blames her cancer on vaping, she said.
“My symptoms started a few months after I started disposable vapes, and there’s no lung cancer in my family,” she said. “I haven’t vaped for three months, I’ve made my partner stop, I’ve made my mom stop, I’m urging all my friends to stop. Stay off the vapes,” she continued, “because they will catch up with you.”
When doctors did an X-ray, they found a shadow on Boda’s right lung. She was later diagnosed with lung cancer and has undergone surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy. (SWNS)
She said she’d been using reusable vapes since the age of 15 and began using disposable vapes a few months before her cancer symptoms started.
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In November 2024, when she developed a rash all over her body, doctors said it could have been due to shingles, chicken pox or scabies, she told SWNS.
‘Nothing worked’
“I got treated for all three, and nothing worked,” Boda said. “It got to the point where I was cutting myself from scratching so hard.”
A few months after that, she began coughing up a dark brown mucus, with “grainy bits, the consistency of sugar, in it,” she said. When the coughing continued, she visited the doctor’s office, but was told it could be scarring from pneumonia or a chest infection, she also said.
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It wasn’t until March 2025 that she began coughing up bright red blood. At that point, doctors gave her a chest X-ray and told her they’d found a shadow on her lower right lung.
Over the next four months, she had seven biopsies as doctors took samples from the “shadow.” In August, when she went to get the results, she was told she had stage one lung cancer.
Boda is shown in the hospital. She was diagnosed with lung cancer and had surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy. (SWNS)
In September 2025, she had surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, and the surrounding lymph nodes. During the surgery, doctors upstaged her cancer from stage one to stage three after finding cancer in six surrounding lymph nodes, she said.
Following the surgery, Boda was unable to breathe properly and had to learn to walk all over again.
“The oncologist said this is so rare.”
After finishing chemotherapy in February 2026, Kayley was given the all clear, leaving her feeling elated.
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However, just a month after that, she began experiencing extreme chest pains and was told by doctors she had a pleural effusion — a build-up of fluid in the lungs. She had the fluid removed, but when doctors tested it, they discovered her cancer had returned to the pleural lining of her lungs, giving her 18 months to live.
“The oncologist said this is so rare, and usually something they see in patients that are 80 years old,” she said, as SWNS reported.
Increasingly, vacation hot spots are enforcing strict bans on the use of e-cigarettes in public venues. (iStock)
Boda claimed that doctors were unable to pin her cancer to a specific cause — but told her that smoking and vaping definitely didn’t help.
Since her diagnosis, she has stopped and is urging others to stop, too.
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She’s hoping to raise the thousands of dollars needed for treatment to try to prolong her life, she said.
Last year, Fox News Digital reported on the case of a Pennsylvania woman, 26, who said she vaped for just one year before her lungs collapsed. She was 22 when she took up the habit, she said in an interview.
“Everybody warned me about it, but I didn’t listen — I wish that I did,” she said.
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Dr. David Campbell, clinical director and program director at Recover Together Bend in Oregon, told Fox News Digital at that time that signs of collapsed lungs include sharp chest or shoulder pain, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing.
Lung issues are just one of the many health issues linked to vaping, he warned. The habit can also increase the risk of heart disease and stroke, as well as exposure to harmful heavy metals.
Melissa Rudy of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.
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The key to feeling better in a fast, overstimulated world might be surprisingly simple: Live a little more like your grandparents.
A growing social media trend, dubbed “nonnamaxxing,” draws inspiration from the slower, more intentional rhythms associated with an Italian grandmother.
The lifestyle is often linked to activities like preparing home-cooked meals, spending time outdoors and making meaningful connections.
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“Nonnamaxxing is a 2026 trend that embraces the slower, more intentional lifestyle of an Italian grandmother (a Nonna). Think cooking from scratch, long family meals, daily walks, gardening and less screen time,” Erin Palinski-Wade, a New Jersey-based registered dietitian, told Fox News Digital.
Nonnamaxxing, derived from the name for an Italian grandmother, is a trend that incorporates lifestyle habits hundreds of years in the making. (iStock)
Stepping away from screens and toward real-world interaction can have measurable benefits, according to California-based psychotherapist Laurie Singer.
“We know that interacting with others in person, rather than spending time on screens, significantly improves mental health,” she told Fox News Digital, adding that social media often fuels comparison and lowers self-esteem.
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Living more like previous generations isn’t purely driven by nostalgia. Cooking meals from scratch, for example, has been linked to better nutrition and more mindful eating patterns.
Adopting traditional mealtime habits can improve diet quality and support both physical and mental health, especially when meals are shared regularly with others, Palinski-Wade noted.
One longevity expert stresses that staying healthy isn’t just about food — it’s also about joy and community. (iStock)
There’s also a psychological benefit to slowing down and focusing on one task at a time. Anxiety often stems from unfinished or avoided tasks, Singer noted, and engaging in hands-on activities can counteract that.
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“Nonnamaxxing encourages us to be present around a task, like gardening, baking or knitting, or just taking a mindful walk, that delivers something ‘real,’” she said.
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Palinski-Wade cautions against turning the trend into another source of pressure, noting that a traditional “nonna” lifestyle often assumes a different pace of life.
The key, she said, is adapting the mindset, not replicating it perfectly.
Nonnamaxxing, derived from the name for an Italian grandmother, is a trend that incorporates lifestyle habits hundreds of years in the making. (iStock)
The goal is to reintroduce small, intentional moments that make you feel better.
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That might mean prioritizing a few shared meals each week, taking a walk without your phone or setting aside time for a simple hobby, the expert recommended.
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Singer added, “Having a positive place to escape to, through whatever activities speak to us and make us happy, isn’t generational – it’s human.”
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